Doppelganger's Dance
by MagiaRecordings
Summary: Kaede decides to use the Mirror Witch's familiars to help out a sick Rena.


The dim evening sun over a new spring day, a gentle breeze that's just the right temperature to keep you cool; a picturesque scene. For most, a day where you could spend an eternity outdoors. For others, not so much.

"Are you sure you're okay, Rena?" An auburn-haired girl said, leaning over the bed of her friend. This only earned her a glare and a scoff, to which Momoko replied; "It's been three days now, you must understand that Kaede and I would be at least a little worried." No response. Sighing, Momoko nodded to her able friend, and both left the room.

"Even now, she refuses to accept any kind of help." She griped, giving a sad look to her underclassman. "Last time she couldn't even walk on her own". "Any ideas yet?" Kaede prodded, only to be met with a sigh. "I've even tried magic, but even that didn't do anything to help. I still don't understand how a magical girl can get sick in the first place." Trudging their way to the door of Rena's home in silence, their worries only grew.

It had been three days since Rena hadn't attended school. The first was fine, sure. But with exams fast approaching, no one could afford to be sick right now. Though both Momoko and Kaede payed a visit to their sick friend whenever they could, her condition seemed to be far from improving. In fact, it only seemed their presence made it worse. Rena absolutely refused to go to any kind of doctor, saying something along the lines of "It's nothing big." or "I'll be fine in a few days.". That, and the fact that this was the first time any of them had seen a magical girl get sick, only weighed them down further. Even the coordinator was at a loss when she heard of the trio's issue.

"If you think of something, call me." The yellow haired girl sighed. With a wave, her and Kaede split paths back to their respective homes. "Nothing before had worked, so what now?" Kaede thought to herself, head held low as she started home. They'd tried almost everything by this point; magic, clearing her soul gem, even some weird snake oil Felicia was insistent they use. Without so much as a lead, they had their first set of exams tomorrow. If Rena failed to attend, she'd have to take remedial classes for sure. Not that her scores were good in the first place. Wracking her brain for ideas, she felt a familiar presence.

"A witch? Again?' Kaede sighed, fully intent on leaving it alone. "Even if I were to fight it now, I don't think I could take it on m-" She cut herself off, piecing together the familiar magical pattern. The Mirror Witch's labyrinth. At least she didn't have to fight a witch, she thought. "Wait a minute, the Mirror Witch?" Brilliance flashing in her eyes, Kaede sent a quick message to Momoko: "I've got this! ;)" Sure, using a witch to help her was a terrible idea, but what other choice did she have? Rena could be sick for even longer! Even if she yelled at her it would be worth it, she thought.

"Rena?" Kaede stuttered out, wandering the endless halls of the Mirror Witch's labyrinth. "Are you here?" She'd come alone, despite her best interests. No way Momoko would go along with this; she had to help Rena herself! Putting her thoughts of the consequences into the back of her mind, she continued. "Please come out, we're worried!" The bait seemed to work, as a perfect rendition of her aqua-haired friend formed itself out of a mirror. "Act the part, gotta act the part…." Kaede mumbled to herself, approaching the doppleganger. It seemed all too real, up until it spoke. 'I-It's scary here, Kaede…." It whispered.

This witch was special. It created near-perfect copies of magical girls who entered it's labyrinth, with a single caveat; their personalities would almost always be inverted. In Rena's case, her copy became an incredibly shy and soft spoken person. Well, until it figures out you know it's a copy. At that point it becomes rather… aggressive.

"Let's go home then, Rena." Forcing a smile, Kaede took the hand of her 'friend' and turned to leave. "But…." The illusion pulled her back by the sleeve, clearly distraught. "I don't want to leave this place, it's nice. Why don't you stay?" Of course, no matter how close they were to the original, they're still familiars of the Mirror Witch. They'd try anything to get a magical girl to stay. Knowing this, Kaede did her best to put on a commanding presence. "We'll come back tomorrow, okay? Momoko wanted to anyway, right?" She lied. Satisfied with that, the copy seemed to oblige, following Kaede on her path through the labyrinth. "That was… far too easy." Kaede mused to herself.

To her surprise, however, the many copies of other magical girls seemed to ignore her now. This made getting to the exit a much easier task than getting in, though Kaede couldn't shake the feeling of unease every time she saw a doppelganger. Momoko's especially, they all looked murderous…. "H-how far now? I'm getting tired." The fake Rena whispered, breaking Kaede's train of thought. "Oh, uh a little ways now. Not too far." She flashed a quick smile at the copy, to little effect. "I'm tired, walking all this way hurts my feet." Putting on her leader act, Kaede planted a finger square on the copies cheek. "We're gonna keep going. Or do you want me to do this again?" She poked the fake's cheek again for emphasis. Satisfied with the furious shaking of her head, Kaede continued to lead them out.

Immediately upon leaving the labyrinth, Kaede's phone blared with multiple text messages from Momoko. "What do you mean you've got this? What are you doing? KAEDE!" and a few others graced her screen for a moment before she turned the device off. The aftermath wasn't going to be fun, was it? "It feels weird out here…." The fake trailed off, turning a tinge of pale. "Oh, right. They can't last for too long outside of their labyrinth." Kaede thought, quickly expending some of her magical energy to keep the fake from disappearing. She should have enough magic to keep it from expiring until tomorrow night, right? "Rena, you're coming to my house tonight, okay?" The doppelganger hesitated, but was quickly in agreement after another prod on the cheek. Kaede put up her smile again. "Good! Now, you should probably switch out of your magical girl form, right?" This was the make or break part of her plan; she had no clue if the fake could change its appearance from the copy the witch made. The confused expression from the second Rena only furthered this theory. "Er, you know, like this!" Kaede cancelled out her transformation, returning to her school uniform. "Did you forget? I know you were in there for a few days but…." The copy nodded. "I can do it too, watch!" Seemingly eager to prove itself, it emitted a flash a white light, before leaving it with….

"R-Rena! No! Not like that!" Kaede stuttered out, quick to cover her eyes. "Back to what I have on! Exactly like this!" After a few panicked and rather unladylike cries, it stopped flashing. "Did I do it right?" Peeking through her hands, Kaede was quick to confirm. "Don't do that again!" She gave the fake multiple pokes on the cheek, electing more pleas from it. Satisfied that it understood, she dragged the uniform-clad doppelganger back to her home. With her parents out for the night, Kaede had no trouble coercing it into her room for the night. She'd gotten this far, but it got a whole lot harder from here. "Now what do I do?" The fake whispered, tugging on Kaede's sleeve. "Now? Uhm…." Hoping it'd simply go to sleep or something, Kaede shut her door. "We should… catch up! With you having been lost in there for three days right?"

"Oh, uh, yeah."

"So what happened in there?"

"Stuff."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Mirror stuff."

This wasn't going anywhere. So Kaede prodded.

"Momoko was worried, you know."

"S-she was? I hope I didn't make her angry…."

So the copies did retain enough memories of the original, at least. Otherwise this wouldn't work at all. Eager to test the extent of its knowledge, Kaede continued.

"You remember Iroha?"

"Iroha? The pink-haired one, right?"

"Yeah."

"I do. She was really nice. I hope I see her again."

"Wait, really? Rena thought she was nice?" Kaede thought. "When she went through all that trouble to get us to make up, Rena pushed her away." Seeing an opportunity, she continued.

"What about me?"

"Huh? What about you?"

"What do you think about me?"

It hesitated, cheeks slowly turning a darker shade of red. "O-oh, uh, we're friends and stuff…." The fake trailed off, unable to maintain eye contact with Rena any longer. With a mischievous look on her face, Kaede continued. "That's all, Rena? Tell me the truth." She mused, edging herself across the carpet. "I-uh, you know." It backed itself into a corner of the room, leaving no escape for the copy. "I know what?" Kaede couldn't pass off such an opportunity, and crept closer until she was over the fake. "We're best friends, right? Best of best friends!" It pleaded, only furthering her resolve. "Tell me, Rena." Her face right in front of the copy's. After a few moments of silence, it blurted out; "You're the best person I've ever met!" A tad embarrassed, Kaede let up on the fake. "Why thank you, Rena." Satisfied, she returned to her bed.

"Who knew familiars needed sleep?" Kaede mused, looking over the sleeping copy of Rena. It had found one of her blankets tucked away in her dresser, and slept on the floor next to her bed. "Wake up, Rena." She whispered into its ear, resulting in a jump from the doppelganger. "I'm up! I'm up! Please don't poke me!" It responded, distress evident in its voice. Although it slept in a school uniform, it didn't wrinkle in the slightest. Though the same couldn't be said for Kaede's. "Ah, I slept in my uniform again…." Kaede sighed, generating her soul gem. Upon seeing it, however, her face dropped. "It's really dark… How much magic am I using keeping the fake outside of the labyrinth?" She knew it would be taxing to upkeep the illusion, but she didn't think it would be this bad. "I'll ask Momoko if she has a spare grief seed later…." Using a minimal amount of magic to fix her uniform, she took the fake by the hand. "School time, Rena."

With a quick breakfast of buttered toast, the two were off. While the fake nervously looked around the streets as they walked, Kaede couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't going to end well. Yeah, she'd still got plenty of magic left, but what if a witch shows up? She couldn't fight like this, especially if she were to keep the fake Rena around. Not to mention Momoko would surely find out it was a fake. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all?

Too late to change her decision, Kaede and the fake Rena met Momoko at the school's gate. "Kaede…." She looked the fake up and down, clearly suspicious after Kaede's texts."What did you do?" "I just got some magic to help her up, that's all." Kaede protested, patting the fake on the shoulder. "Right, Rena?" Out of fear or something else altogether, the fake nodded. Though the yellow-haired girl didn't seem convinced, she let it slide. "Just don't fail your exams you two, alright?"

Oh.

Oh no.

Sure, Kaede did all this and got 'Rena' to the exams, but she didn't study herself…. A fresh wave of anxiety washing over her, she gave Momoko a quick smile. "We'll be fine. Don't worry!" She said, earning a worried smile from Momoko herself. "If you need anything please talk to me this time, alright?" With that, she headed off inside to prepare, and the other two followed suit.

Kaede had never felt more defeated. Almost half the answers were guesswork, and she couldn't stay focused at all during the test. She couldn't do anything but worry about the fake Rena doing something. It wouldn't hurt someone, right? Even if it tried to, she could just stop using magic to upkeep it, surely…. Thoughts like that permeated her mind and throttled her didn't leave her mind, either, as she made her way over to the nearby park where they'd planned to meet.

"Rena, how did you do?" Kaede asked, the last of the group to show up. "Fine, she says." Momoko said, replying in her stead. "Kaede, can you come here for a moment?" Seizing up, she nodded, following her off to the side. "Are you sure you didn't do something weird to her? She's not as, uh, vocal as she usually is." Momoko said, giving a concerned glance back at the double. "Just tell me what happened. I wont be mad, Kaede, I promise." Even if she wanted to, Kaede couldn't respond. She knew she'd made a mistake, but there wasn't anything she could do now. "That was so selfish of me." She thought to herself. She did it for Rena, of course, but didn't think about how this would affect the real Rena back home. There would be no way someone wouldn't find out about this now, and she knew. "Momoko, I'm-" She was abruptly cut off by a torrent of water slamming into the friend in front of her.

"Rena?!" Kaede whirled around, a look of fear growing on her face. The previously shy and quiet copy had taken to Rena's magical girl form, trident aimed squarely at the now unconscious Momoko. "I'm the real Rena, Momoko." It sneered, killing intent clear on its face. She'd figured it out, and the copy knew. "The tie-!" Kaede, drawing her soul gem once again, cut the tie keeping the familiar outside it's labyrinth. Now, if she could keep it from hurting Momoko until the doppelganger ran out of energy, she might be able to fix her mistake.

Or so she thought.

Upon looking at the soul gem in her hand, Kaede was quick to realize the amount of impurity built up within the small object. Almost all of the gem was covered in a black miasma, leaving only a tiny portion of auburn glow left. If she transformed right now, she was done for. "Please." She pleaded to the fake. "Don't. I'll go to the labyrinth again, just please…." Her begging fell on deaf ears as tears began to form in her eyes. "Ooh? And why would I do that? I want to stab at you two a bit." In a half hearted attack, the fake thrust her trident towards Kaede which she was just barely able to leap out of the way of. "Please." Kaede sobbed, feeling the impurity in her soul gem weighing down on her. "Just don't."

The copy simply smirked, and slowly trodded over to the downed magical girl. "I'm having too much fun to stop, sorry!" It laughed giving Kaede's soul gem a small blast of magical energy. "See? If we poke-poke it like this, it wont go back to normal again!"

"I don't think so."

A trident, flying down from above them, impaled the doppelganger through the torso. Sputtering, it turned to the assailant. "You're no fun." It sighed, before turning into nothing more than a reflective puddle on the ground. Retrieving her weapon embedded in the ground, the real Rena approached her sobbing friend. "Don't do this again." She sighed, touching a grief seed to Kaede's soul gem. "It's really not worth the hassle. I'm tired of you hurting yourself." Kaede simply continued sobbing, grabbing her hand. "Momoko's fine. Little water blast will probably bruise up a bit, but she should heal that off in a couple hours."

Rena couldn't help but feel for Kaede. She knew she tried to help, that much was evident, but remedial classes were a much better outcome than losing both of her friends. "Come on, come on, I'll take both of you back to my place alright? You owe me later though." Kaede gave a nod, before Rena took the smaller girl into her arms.

"You sure she's alright?"

"Yeah, she tougher than that. You know that don't you?"

A woozy Momoko and tired Rena looked over the bedside of Kaede, who was sleeping soundly. "She tried to use the mirror witch so I wouldn't miss a test. How crazy is that?" Rena giggled. "She tried her best, you know. Even if her idea wasn't exactly the greatest" Momoko responded, turning her gaze to her aqua-eyed friend. "We really need to have a talk about when she needs to ask for help. She keeps doing things like this."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

With a nod, Momoko left the two of them alone.

"You don't have to worry so much." Rena sighed, running a hand through Kaede's hair. "Even if you goof up, I told you didn't I? You're the best person I've ever met."


End file.
